Middle East Matters This Week: Struggles in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria

Tunisia.Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali pledged to announce a government of technocrats tomorrow, following intensive consultations with a variety of party leaders today. Jebali recently sacked his cabinet and called for new elections after the assassination of prominent opposition leader Chokri Belaid on February 6. The prime minister’s own party Ennahda, which dominates the National Constituent Assembly, has resisted Jebali’s proposal for a caretaker government and has called on its supporters to “defend their revolution.” Jebali has ignored their calls and said he would resign if his new cabinet is rejected.

Sunday marks the eighty-seventh anniversary of Turkey’s adoption of a secular civil code replacing shari’a, which had been the foundation of Ottoman personal status law. Enacted on February 17, 1926, the Turkish Civil Code was adapted from the Swiss Civil Code and abolished polygamy, and granted women equal rights in matters of family relationships and inheritance. The Civil Code was part of the modernization project of revolutionary Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. At the time, Minister of Justice Mahmut Esat explained that “the Ottoman code and similar other religious regulations are not reconcilable with Turkish national life.” The Turkish Civil Code of 1926 was extensively reformed in 2001.